Robots Have Invaded The Smithsonian

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The Smithsonian Museum of American History will now feature the exciting world of robots! The main event— the John Cena vs. The Rock, if you will—is a tiny robot by the name of Marv, which stands for mini autonomous robot vehicle. It was developed in 1996-97 by the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Lab.

That’s Marv right there—a hair larger than a penny. Believe it or not, but that was created completely with off-the-shelf parts way back then. There’s even a microprocessor somewhere in there.

And while Marv is the main event of the exhibit, there’s a whole host of other Important Robots that are part of the display. C-3PO and R2-D2 from Star Wars are there! Say no more!

What’s the point of the exhibit? Besides being pretty neat, there seems to be push to interest this country’s young people in becoming engineers. I believe the U.S. is now graduating something like two dozen engineers per year. Who’s going to build the next generation of bridges?